This morning, 34 teams from around the country rolled their custom-built bikes into the main hall of Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) for the official start of Oregon Manifest and... holy promised land of designer bike porn! The bikes are fabulous.

The last time Portland held the national bikes-as-transportation design competition, the results were mostly straight-forward (albeit gorgeous) city bikes. This year, the builders have really taken the innovation up a notch. Or, like, six notches. On what notch does "sidecar for dog named Raz" reside?

Bike by Bellingham-based builder Donkelope

The big difference this year is the inclusion of student teams, including designers from University of Oregon, the Art Institute, and a team of sixth and seventh graders from a Newark charter school who teamed up with bike builder Folk Engineering. Their bike includes a wheel-powered USB cell phone charger, explains seventh grader Abdul Nafae Syed.

11-year-old Abdul intently explains the workings of his team's bike

"Once this spins, it creates kinetic energy," said the 11-year-old Syed, pointing to the generator that rubs along the back wheel's rim. "There's a switch so that you can either power the light every time you pedal, or plug in your cell phone."

"How did you get into bike building?" I asked the Smartest Kid in AmericaTM.

"I want to be an architect and it's basically architecture featured for practical use by humans. And it's eco-friendly," said Syed.

Watch out, world. Check out the bikes tonight at the Oregon Manifest opening night party from 7-10pm. Tomorrow, the builders have to ride the bikes on a secret 50-mile course. I'll be there, too, and if I don't die along the way, I'll blog the whole thing here so click back to Blogtown tomorrow. I may or may not die. I don't own bike shorts and I never ride more than, oh, 10 miles a day, so this'll be a bit absurd.

H'okay: Onto the dozens of photos of all the other beautiful bikes! We've got cargo bikes, longtails, a pizza bike, sweet racks, a sidecar for art students! They're all below the cut.

Um... Is this ZIBA-designed bike locked with a rope? Nope, that's a rope wrapped around a chain, meant to evoke "an explorer tying up his horse."

It also has a sidecar, of course.

Want a hot pink bike with built-in lock and sound system? Tony Pereira has you covered.

Tony's is an electric assist bike and weighs a ton. "It's sweat-free transportation," he says. It's intended buyer is someone who doesn't like to show up at meetings looking like they've just been to the gym.